OH Breeder said:
I hope that Touchdown is calving ease sire. I read the articles in shorthorn country....."HC FL Touchdown 123T is one of the Horseshoe Creek herd bulls working the pasture. He is an easy calving sire with all of his calves being born unassisted and weighing 85 lbs or less at birth."
I used four different calving ease sires this year to see if I could find a replacement for Gizmo. I will let you all know how that turns out. I used him on a larger made Jazz x Ace Of Diamonds x Rodeo Drive heifer.
Oh Breeder, that is exactly why always hesitate to promote a bull as safe for heifers, as there are lots of different types of heifers out there, with lots of different genetics in their backgrounds. I have only used Touchdown on a few cows that have any Trump breeding, and the calves have had moderate BWs. I have not used him on any heifers with Trump so how he will work on them is still debatable. Like I said earlier, the heaviest BW last year was 85 lbs but we did have a couple at 95 lb this year out of cows. How particular bulls work in different herds oftentimes makes me scratch my head. One example of this is with Gizmo. I purchased 10 straws of Gizmo a few years ago and used 4 straws. I got 3 calves... 2 bulls and 1 heifer. Both bull calves were well over the 110 lb BW limit I have in my herd, and both were pretty decent pulls, so both were banded. My experience with Gizmo, would suggest he is not a calving ease sire, but I know almost everyone else who has used him has been pleased with the calving ease.The heifer calf was smaller and was born unassisted, but she was not kept as a replacement as she just never grew very well ( which may not have been the sire's fault at all) So I still have 6 straws and every year I tell myself that I should try it again and see if I can get some lower BW bulls from Gizmo. So far, it is still in my tanks.